JAMES Hird isn't easily impressed, but after six straight losses in Perth the Essendon coach was clearly elated with his side's effort to beat Fremantle by 24 points at Patersons Stadium on Saturday night.

The Bombers fell 17 points behind with a couple of minutes left in the third term before striking back.

They snuck a couple of late goals to go to the last change five points down, then obliterated the Dockers with a 4.6 to 0.1 final term.

"I think it's a huge win," Hird said.

"To come over to Perth where we just haven't played well, where there's demons for some of our players, and there is every excuse, when you are down by 17 points in the third quarter, to give it in - and they fought back."

Besides the character of the victory, Hird was also rapt that it kept them in touch with the pointy end of the ladder.

"It keeps us in the top four and arrests a bit of a slide in performance we've had in the past few weeks," he said.

"But we understand that it's just one win and we've got to go back to Melbourne and beat the Bulldogs next week to make this win worthwhile."

In fact, Hird was praising everyone - six-goal hero Michael Hurley, skipper Jobe Watson and even young coach Matthew Egan, who he credited with fixing the goal-kicking yips that haunted the Bombers in their last-start loss to the Sydney Swans.

"I can't speak highly enough of Jobe - his heart is incredible," Hird said.

"It wasn't his best game in that he didn't get 40 possessions and I thought Ryan Crowley got the better of him in the second quarter.

"But often when you get beaten and you fight back, they are the best performances. He just kept fighting and fighting and willed his team over the line."

Hird might have been talking about his skipper, but it was also an apt description of the Essendon effort in Perth.